Thread devoted to kudzu!

I swear - I hate how most unstructured debates turn into a matter of schematics and who-did-whats

I hate structured debates because I don't like feeling like a fag, though.

I guess I gotta pick my battles.

 

purp.... I love books and reading... I love the net and researching stuff, I think it is a wonderful thing to be able to do. Make no mistake, you gain ZERO experience by reading it though.

You were not using other's experience, you were using their words about their experiences. Words, are NOT experience. You can read every single book, paper, watch every educational video ever made in the history of mankind, it still does not entitle you to 'speak from experience'...

 

im still working on it. living in the woods my entire life. struggling by trial and error my entire adult life to become 100% self sustaining and just now to about the 90% point of that goal..

my knowledge comes from hands on experience and learning to understand mother earth and her cycles through trial and error not from books.

i learned early on that a book can tell you the right way to do something,or the way something works best but until when you do it or observe it it rarely turns out the way the book says. so i just dont take much stock in what they say anymore.
thats not to say they aint a good starting point but just because ya read a book dont make ya a expert. only hands on experience can make you that.

my degree isnt and never will be finished.

 

Anyway... HHB, what all have you guys done with it there besides frying the leaves?

 

What did I just say? I have no experience personally with Kudzu. I only have my own experience with the invasive species issues in my own area...

For all the love of reading you have, maybe you should take up a love of reading comprehension.

And to discredit the knowledge to be found in print is retarded. I'm gaining knowledge through speaking to HHB on the internet.

 

I agree that books offer good starting points and all, but that does not mean that all books are somehow inferior to verbal conversation. Books are other peoples' EXPERIENCE put in writing and the credibility of that book/article/research paper/journal is based on the credibility of that person...so yes - books are a valuable source of information.

What you say is somewhat contradictory to what you believe, I feel.

 

Sound advice...

 

Do I need to make myself more clear?

I also swear that talking with Tom is making me pick up his quoting abilities....

 

that and jelly .. its nice to know its there and we have enough knowledge about it to make good use of it but we have not really experimented with it a whole lot.

our focus has always been being sustainable here without the need to forage off the property for anything other than medicinal herbs..

 

i dont claim to be literate lol.. i wish i could articulate my feelings better so as to not look contradictory but alas my ninth grade education seems to be preventing that.. lol

 

Very nice.

I am currently studying wildlife ecology. That is under the Environmental studies part of things. Very interesting.

 

We are slowly finding just what we have here, ever day something new comes up in an unexpected place. We keep dragging our buddy (the one with 39 years experience on the land itself) here and getting him to identify stuff for us.

Of course, I could just use the net and the books on the shelves, but I personally really like having that direct experience shared in person.

Once we get things straightened around here, we'll swap you some stuff made from things that grow here in exchange for a bundle of leaves and some of that jelly...

 

No worries, my point was just that you value experience over word documentation or a degree - whereas word documentation is just that - experiences written down. A degree is something that has no value to you, because you live close to the earth and far from society it seems.

Credibility to you is that experience, so why are documents on peoples' experiences with Kudzu not credible?

The degree simply shows that this person can be taken seriously and is credible because they have devoted their life to its studies.

While your experience is definitely valued, it cannot be evaluated much on the same level as people that are smarter than the average person on the topic of environment and ecosystems , as these people have completed rigorous tests and studies, have access to equipment neither of us do, and they have the TIME to do it. You spend much of your time doing chores and such - in the benefit of having a lot of first hand experience but in the drawback of not having a lot of time to really study it as in depth as those with degrees do...

That is what I was saying and why I value documents ALONG with experience. Much the reason why I was asking for you to show outside sources, as I could go on about how zebra mussels aren't that bad of an animal to have around, I just have to knock them off boats and such - but with research and source evaluation I can learn and share that in fact, they clog up irrigation and breed so extensively that they kill any opportunity for natural aquatic life to survive - among many other things

 

OK a lot of people are not going to like this but here we go.

Most stuff gets written, for money.

Once it's known that you can get money for writing something, suddenly everyone starts writing about it.

The way it looks to me, Local gov. spends tens of thousands of dollars on getting rid of something. Well that money does not all go to the guy pushing the mower. Most of the budget will go in one persons pocket, if you can create a few jobs with the rest than those people will vote for you.

If you fix the problem, there will be less ,if not, no money in the budget next year.

To justify a bigger budget, you need more writing.

It's a disgusting cycle, there are no good guys, just people that want more.

The more something looks like the end of the world, the more money you can get.


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This is for hhb

As a feed crop how big an area would you need to feed a goat or cow ?

 

really depends on the crop.

as far as pasture,a cow you need to plan on one acre of productive pasture per cow. 3 goats per acre of productive pasture.
reality is that number can go as high as 100 acres per cow in the scrub brush country of the west.

we have our goats pastured and supplement their feed with a acre food plot of mixed grains, amaranth,buckwheat and quinoa. on top of that we feed them with anything that we weed out of the gardens and through the winter fallen leaves..

we have never tried to grow grains to supplement 100% of our animals feed so i really cant give a definitive answer. although i know i have read numbers in articles relating to "global warming", but i dont believe anything that comes from that crowd..

 

So if I had an acre of this stuff that grows an inch or two a day you could feed 3 goats on that single acre ?

That sounds almost as unbelievable as a chicken laying an egg everyday.

Somethings just sound to productive, It may be in someones best interest to keep something like that out of the hands of people it could benefit.

I hate sounding like a nut but it looks like there are an awful lot of people that would like to get rid of this weed, (using your tax dollars). It reminds me of another plant that costs billions of tax dollars to keep under control (that has no beneficial qualities).

I may be crazy but if something works really well for something, we should use it (like bamboo witch people are coming up with new uses for everyday). George Carlin used to do a really great skit about how something like 99% of the plants and animals on this planet are extinct, now I'm not saying we should go out and scorch the earth and only grow what we feel like is worth while, but trying to take control seems silly, and making this into a "life or death, we have to act now" thing is really crazy.

It just seems like this is a plant with more potential than what we are used to and it needs to be exploited.


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Can Any one tell me why my Avatar isn't showing up ?


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:smilielol5:thanks, we got a good laugh outta that.. :cheers2:

 

There is no doubt that the plant has its uses, however it does not have a natural check and balance in the Americas' ecosystems, and when we are not paying a shit ton of money or grazing animals on the land that Kudzu has inhabited it sucks the life out of everything else.

I just noticed the Kudzu in my backyard recently and I am watching it strangle a tree. One tree is already dead because of it.

My sister came back from Columbia, Missouri this weekend and she was saying how big of a problem it is down there because it is literally destroying forests.

 

So deer and rabbits and bugs don't eat it ?

Or is it just in places where man has chased those animals away ?

I just get a little worried when there is such a large number of people against something, and their answer is " it's going to cost a lot, but we must go to war with " what ever.

I don't see this being a bad thing. As long as it's growing it's capturing CO2 and you can make chips out of it. Sounds awesome why isn't there a movement to promote the use of this stuff ?

I see the orgy of evidence to spend as much tax dollars as possible to get rid of it, but if it's that important maybe these people that make their living on tax dollars should take some time off and remove this stuff on their own time with out pay.

If it has some natural defense against pests like bugs and deer and rabbits than I think we need to cross bread it with everything in my garden, because those deer kicked my tomatoes and my edamame's asses.

 

:rofl: